I don't drink tap water. I haven't since 2007 because of what I read about fluoride and chlorine being harmful to the body, and both are abundant in the water here. However, when I was taking a shower recently I noticed something strange. Some of the water accidentally got into my mouth and I noticed that it had a distinctly sweet taste to it. I thought about it for a few minutes, thinking it was minerals from some benign source, and then it suddenly dawned on me that it was actually toxic, toxic lead. I remember from chemistry that lead makes things taste sweet-ish.

The apartment is old, it was built in 1961, so there is a good chance that even if the pipes aren't made out of lead, which I'm pretty sure at least some of them are, there is lead solder is somewhere within the system. But I'm not 100% sure. Can anything else cause tap water to be sweet-tasting? Please help.

They didn't use lead pipe in the 60's. They used galvanized some and copper for the most part. With copper, the solder used had lead in it. I think they came out with lead free solder in the late 70's or 80's. If your water is acidic with a PH of less than 7.0, it can leach things out of pipe including the lead in solder. If the water is practically perfect but sits in the pipes for extended periods of time, the lead in the solder can build up in the water. This is why we run water before testing it in a house that has sat for a long time vacant.

I can't comment on the sweet taste, I have never experienced it before nor have I even heard of it.